Editor's note: The High Museum of Art provided
source material to Resource Library for the following article or
essay. If you have questions or comments regarding the source material,
please contact the High Museum of Art directly through either this phone
number or web address:

Organized and presented
by The High Museum of Art, "Cecilia Beaux, American Figure Painter"
is the most comprehensive critical examination of the internationally
acclaimed figure painter's work in more than 30 years. The exhibition, which
opens in Atlanta on May 12, 2007, illuminates Cecilia Beaux's work by exploring
issues of gender, class and the importance of place in relation to her identity
and reputation as the leading female artist working in the U.S. at the turn
of the 20th century (1855-1942). "Cecilia Beaux" features approximately
85 works, including oils, works on paper and decorative objects, and will
be on view in Atlanta through September 9, 2007; it will subsequently travel
to the Tacoma Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
(right: Cecilia Beaux, Sita and Sarita (detail), 1893, oil
on canvas, 37 3/8 x 28 1/8 inches. Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Photogaph
courtesy Réunion des Musées Nationaux Art Resource, N.Y. Photogaphy
by René-Gabriel Ojéda)

Organized chronologically, the retrospective surveys Beaux's
40-year career -- from her early years in Philadelphia to her studies in
France and her later activities in New York and Cape Ann, Mass. -- "Cecilia
Beaux" also traces aspects of the artist's colorful biography and relationships
with key historical figures such as Theodore Roosevelt, Henry James, Ida
Tarbell and the World War I Allied leaders Cardinal Mercier and Georges
Clemenceau.

"In the tradition of the High's fresh investigations
of Norman Rockwell, James McNeill Whistler and Andrew Wyeth, we believe
this exhibition will reposition Cecilia Beaux and her work in the history
of American art," said Sylvia Yount, Margaret and Terry Stent Curator
of American Art, High Museum of Art and organizing curator of the exhibition.
"We are eager to acquaint our audiences with Beaux's successful career
in an effort to nurture appreciation for a wide range of American art."

The exhibition features Beaux's highly regarded portraits
in the context of her commercial and student works and figure paintings,
as well as landscape and still-life compositions. Beaux's sitters were drawn
from the public realm -- academia, business, organized religion, politics
and high society -- and many were personal acquaintances. These circles
frequently overlapped, permitting Beaux's selective approach to commissions.
As she once observed, "It doesn't pay to paint everybody." Prominent
subjects included Flora Whitney, Richard Watson Gilder, Ida Tarbell and
Theodore Roosevelt.

Also featured in the exhibition are two works in the High's
permanent collection. "Half-Tide, Annisquam River," ca. 1905,
a view from Beaux's summer home and studio, Green Alley, is a rare example
of her landscape work. "Philadelphia Sketchbook," ca. 1872, contains
24 graphite and black Conté crayon drawings. It is Beaux's earliest
extant sketchbook, produced around the time of her first formal drawing
lessons with the Philadelphia-based Dutch artist Adolf van der Wielen.

Cecilia Beaux

In her lifetime, Beaux was considered by many to be the
artistic equal of John Singer Sargent. In 1933 Beaux received from First
Lady Eleanor Roosevelt a gold medal from the women's fraternal organization
Chi Omega, an award that honored American women for cultural contributions
on the international stage. Her name also appeared on numerous lists of
"greatest living American women." Since then, more experimental
women artists, such as her fellow Pennsylvania Academy alumna Mary Cassatt,
as well as Georgia O'Keeffe, have eclipsed her reputation.

Born in Philadelphia in 1855, Beaux studied privately with
the Dutch artist Adolf van der Wielen and the American painter William Sartain
and, from 1876-1878, took classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts. In 1888 she traveled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian.
Throughout Beaux's successful career, she exhibited her work internationally,
becoming a frequent prizewinner in major American annuals and world's fairs
as well as at the Paris Salons. Beaux stopped painting in the mid-1920s,
published her popular autobiography "Background with Figures"
in 1930, and died in 1942.

Exhibition Catalogue

The exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly publication,
featuring a critical introduction to and analysis of Beaux's art for specialized
and general readers by Sylvia Yount, Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of
American Art, High Museum of Art. Additional essays by cultural historian
Nina Auerbach, John Welsh Centennial Professor of History and Literature,
University of Pennsylvania; art historian Kevin Sharp, Director of Visual
Arts, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts; and Paintings Conservator Mark Bockrath,
will explore Beaux in terms of her professional identity as a "woman"
artist, the highly competitive international portrait market in the 1890s
and the deliberate framing and display of her work. The catalogue is co-published
by the High Museum of Art and the University of California Press. (right:
front cover, exhibition catalogue)

Tour

After opening at the High Museum, the exhibition will travel
to the Tacoma Art Museum (September 29, 2007 - January 6, 2008) and the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (February 2 - April 13, 2008), the
institution with which Cecilia Beaux was most closely linked in her lifetime.

Exhibition Organization and Support

"Cecilia Beaux, American Figure Painter" was
organized by Sylvia Yount, Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of American
Art at the High Museum of Art. Major support for "Cecilia Beaux, American
Figure Painter" comes from The Henry Luce Foundation. This exhibition
has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of
American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius. Additional support
is provided by the Jean and Glenn Verrill Foundation. This exhibition is
generously supported by Buckhead Community Bank, FinListics Solutions and
UBS. This exhibition is presented by "Women in Art," which celebrates
the significant contributions of women in the arts.

Links to sources of information outside of our web site
are provided only as referrals for your further consideration. Please use
due diligence in judging the quality of information contained in these and
all other web sites. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or
out of date. TFAO neither recommends or endorses these referenced organizations.
Although TFAO includes links to other web sites, it takes no responsibility
for the content or information contained on those other sites, nor exerts
any editorial or other control over them. For more information on evaluating
web pages see TFAO's General Resources
section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.
Individual pages in this catalogue will be amended as TFAO adds content,
corrects errors and reorganizes sections for improved readability. Refreshing
or reloading pages enables readers to view the latest updates.

SearchResource
Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.